In 2017, the next administration will set to work implementing the goals and priorities of the new president. Many of those priorities won’t line up neatly with the agency structure of the federal government, and achieving them will require that agencies work together as an “enterprise government” – collaborating and integrating programs and activities across agencies.
But that concept is not easy, as noted during a Sept. 16 roundtable discussion on how agency leaders can coordinate and integrate to drive successful outcomes for the next President, co-hosted by the IBM Center for The Business of Government and the Partnership for Public Service. At the roundtable, career and political leaders from multiple Administrations joined other experts to discuss actions that could be taken to spur a government-wide approach to solving problems.
The reality is this: most government agencies accomplish their mission through programs run within their bureaus and components, a program-centric view that is reinforced by legal, budget and policy constraints. Yet how the public interacts with government often involves multiple agencies. Similarly, much of what government does has common elements that can be shared for cost efficiency and organizational effectiveness – from shared financial and HR services to grants delivery.
For the many government activities that cross agency boundaries, taking an enterprise approach by strengthening cross-agency governance, improving collaboration, and using enterprise frameworks can improve outcomes, streamline operations, and lower costs. Enterprise models can help the next administration deliver on key goals. And yet, interagency approaches only receive attention as a second priority, often after months or even years.
And the challenges are clear, if not insurmountable:
Agencies must see a benefit from participating in enterprise initiatives. Senior leaders should focus on communicating positive outcomes for agencies from an enterprise approach.
Senior leadership buy-in is essential when advocating for the enterprise. With cabinet officials focused collectively on key administration priorities, agencies can gain political support for committing resources and people who can collaborate.
Enterprise activity is occurring within agencies, but moving beyond intra-agency integration is a challenge. Agencies can move to a position where good performance from external entities becomes a trusted source of service.
When multiple agencies are involved in setting management priorities, stakeholders must devote considerable additional effort to develop a common solution. For example, to bring electronic health records to public health care delivery involves HHS, VA and other agencies agreeing on how to protect information, transmit it to doctors, and enable customer access.
Organizational divisions in Congress reinforce agency stovepipes, which often mirrors authorization and appropriation divisions. Bringing programs together that cross jurisdictions is facilitated by working with congressional stakeholders in advance, given a funding and oversight structure that favors agency-specific approaches over cross-agency solutions.
Enterprise government requires a framework in place to improve collaboration early in an Administration. Incoming political leaders often do not know about the tools and structures available to support collaboration. New leaders need early clarity on how to use the cross-agency institutions around them to deliver on mission objectives.
To be clear, establishing early and active cross-agency structures that allow collaboration, integration and an enterprise approach, can enable a new administration to deliver on priorities with greater speed and impact, and lower cost and burden. The next administration can quickly drive success by focusing – during transition planning and in the early days of the new term – on making enterprise government the norm rather than an exception.
Dan Chenok is executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government. Alan Howze is a fellow at the IBM Center for the Business of Government ,and senior adviser and project manager for the Management Roadmap initiative between the center and the Partnership for Public Service.
Enterprise government: How the next administration can better serve citizens
